Scripture Verse

The Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land. Deuteronomy 15:4

Introduction

portrait
William Hickson
(1803–1870)

Words: Charles T. Brooks, cir­ca 1833 (verses 1–2). These words, writ­ten while Brooks was stu­dy­ing at the Div­in­ity School in Cam­bridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts, were said to be a trans­la­tion from the Ger­man (at­trib­ut­ed by some sourc­es to an 1815 text by Sieg­fried A. Mahl­mann). They were lat­er re­cast by a num­ber of oth­er au­thors; verse 3 is by Will­iam E. Hick­son (1803–1870).

Music: Am­eri­ca The­saur­us Mu­sic­us, 1744 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of Brooks,

portrait
Charles Brooks
(1813–1883)

Lyrics

God bless our na­tive land!
Firm may she ev­er stand
Through storm and night!
When the wild tem­pests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Father Eter­nal, save
Us by Thy might!

Lo! our hearts’ pray­ers arise
Into the up­per skies,
Regions of light!
He who hath heard each sigh,
Watches each weep­ing eye:
He is for­ev­er nigh,
Venger of right.

Not for this land alone,
But be God’s mer­cies shown
From shore to shore;
And may the na­tions see
That men should bro­thers be,
And form one fam­ily
The wide world o’er.